Softball 4.0 – Does It Even Matter?

I’m trying to gather– or maybe a better word is corral and assign labels to– my thoughts from the last 3 days. Was Monday just a few days ago? If you told me that last week was May, I’d believe you. If you told me yesterday was only 24 hours long, I’d think you should be locked up in a looney bin. Time is, at the same moment, standing still and rushing by like a river. I don’t really want to share details right now about why my heart is heavy, why my mind is racing, what this week will mean as a landmark in my own life so I’ll scoot right along to something more related to the title of the post.

Softball.

If your favorite D-1 college football team loses and you think to yourself, “It’s just a game,” first of all good for you. It’s literally just a game. So with that framework, adult league slow pitch softball is where on that college football scale? So so so so far down and even more of “just a game” than any college sport. That sentiment rang true again this week when I was able to hobble through a softball game against some old-timers (meaning= fantastic batters) in which the old-timers destroyed us by like 57 runs. And I was the pitcher so imagine how it feels to be such a good strike-thrower that EVERYONE gets a hit. That’s sarcasm by the way. The dilemma for a pitcher is this: You have to be accurate enough to toss strikes, but then somehow not let the other team get hits? It’s the conundrum of conundrums.

Because of this other stuff going on in the life of my immediate family (the heavy heart stuff), I walked off the softball field not the slightest bit concerned that I could’ve played better defense or hit the ball harder when I was batting. The phrase that kept coming to mind, and I mean this in a philosophical/ spiritual/ big picture way, not in a lazy, judgmental way… “Who cares?” So what that our team lost (or won or hit good or hit bad or we had errors or we made amazing plays)? There are people out there with real problems, some life and death, so what is a random Thursday night softball game compared to that? It’s nothing. I have a history of being snarky when I’m upset in sports, whether it’s about a bad call from an official or an opposing team verbally jabbing at one another. In the big picture, it’s all fluff. Of course, even in the fluff, my attitude matters. How I treat my teammates and the other team matters. Their journey in life is what matters, not what’s on the scoreboard or if the guy who slid into second was called safe or out.

But I’ll say this, my leg still hurts from last week and it’s weird to not be out there running, biking, swimming like I had been doing all summer. I guess even THAT is something I should just hold off to the side, not a part of life that has deep significance. So I’m hanging on to what I’ve learned in church. God is good. He is in control. Even when I don’t quite see it and definitely don’t understand. And also…

I should go to the batting cage. My softball batting is atrocious!

-Out of the Wilderness

More Drawing Assist From Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra

This week’s been a whirlwind for reasons I may write about later, very personal. I’ll sum it up this way: 2025 is a year of peaks and valleys, more valleys than peaks and this week matches that to a tee. With that said, I’ve been distracting myself with an awesome feature of the Galaxy S25 Ultra. Have you heard of “Drawing Assist”? The phone comes with a stylus and when you take it out of the phone, “Drawing Assist” pops up and you can draw to your heart’s content. AI will then render your work into art and… it’s incredible. I’ve posted about it before (here) but here are the latest examples from my mediocre talent turned into something that’s unique and, might I say in some cases, adorable. Hope you enjoy!

A pic of my 16-yr old niece who played golf with her friend (the girl hanging out above her 🤪)

Am I turtley enough?

This is my rough attempt to draw a goldendoodle. It’s a lot easier to just “draw a dog” but to do a specific type, a challenge as you can see. I think Ai cleaned it up very well and made my scary picture look a lot less scary.

A quick trip to Orlando meant staying in a hotel. Loved the pillows and hot showers (what can I say, I live in a camper and a long hot shower is a major luxury!).

I’ve never seen a panda bear quite like this… but OK. You do you panda bud!

-Out of the Wilderness

Howl Like It’s Your Birthday

Piper! It’s hard to believe we haven’t been together for almost a month and a half. I think about you every day, my sweet and persistent and feisty and fiery beagle. I hope you always knew that I loved you, that I’d always come back for you, and there wasn’t a day that went by where I didn’t wonder what you were thinking or how we could spend time together. Fifteen years. Like a friend said, a million good days and one bad one… so I’m trying to remember all those great moments we had together.

On this day, which would’ve been your 16th birthday, I’ll be thinking about you yet again. Pawing your way through Heaven’s forests looking for that rabbit. Or chasing whatever scent you found. If you can, howl through the clouds and I’ll make sure to be listening all day.

-Out of the Wilderness

What a Pain!

I watched some football this past weekend and the reoccurring thought in my mind when I see the running, cutting, jumping, tackling is… “Ouch!” Not from the contact between two players. I’m talking about all those players bending their legs. Yep. Just bending their legs.

I went to a local orthopedic clinic last week after a bewildering pain in my knee that started during an adult slow-pitch softball game. After leaving there, pain. Lots of pain. I was walking and nicked an outdoor table, I tripped over a water hose, both times causing such pain. So watching these guys run around, not sure I’ll ever be able to do that again. Everything I once knew is the old me. This is me now, hobbling around hoping to avoid any hurdles, literal and figurative.

I’m hoping the medicine, and time, will bring the suffering down to an acceptable level but I’m not sure. I’m so dramatic, huh? It’s not like the doctors are professionals and know how to handle stuff like this. Or am I the first person to ever have this problem!? Nope. Just another guy in a long line of aging men with knee pain.

But goodness gracious, I want to get back to running, working out, playing softball. Maybe tomorrow I’ll notice an improvement. Or maybe never.

-Out of the Wilderness

Dr. Pepper in Pro Town – The Commercial, The Horror!

Things are black and white with Dr. Pepper. Binary. Unlike some fans who like both college AND professional football (which is becoming a blurry gray area anyway), a family from Fansville makes a wrong turn and ends up in Pro Town. They react like that one time I took the wrong exit and ended up in downtown Cincinnati. Or the time I missed my subway stop in New York City and the next stop was the Bronx… AT NIGHT. 👀

Here’s the Dr. Pepper commercial with an appearance from Pro Town resident, Jerry Jones. I think it’s safe to say the Dr. Pepper curse is over, especially now that there’s a surprise curse this 2025 season…

Dr. Pepper is putting all their eggs in one basket– college football. My dad would appreciate that. He likes college football a lot and doesn’t watch NFL unless it just happens to be on when someone else is watching it. I think his disinterest goes back to the Michael Vick dog fighting saga which we won’t get into in today’s post. We love dogs, don’t we? They’re the best!

Back to the commercial… there isn’t anything specific in the ad about how Dr. Pepper is made or what’s in it. That would be boring and might actually turn people away from soda altogether. What Dr. Pepper is selling is a soda that’s cool, connected, and fun. How many fake towns have their own Wikipedia page, right? Fansville is Wikipedia-level successful. Plus, the commercial is funny (and if all else fails, make it funny). Case in point: Insurance commercials. There isn’t anything more boring than insurance but an ad about deductibles would put viewers to sleep so that’s why most, if not all of them, use humor to keep our attention.

Dr. Pepper goes this route in their Fansville campaign and it’s working. Do you have a favorite Fansville episode? Chime in below…

-Out of the Wilderness